Breakfasts That Reflect New Guests

Visitors to the Plaza Athénée on the Upper East Side will now find, listed alongside the eggs and croissants on the breakfast menu, an unusual option. Since August, the hotel has been serving a prix fixe Chinese breakfast that includes congee (a rice porridge with a dusting of scallions); an egg cooked in tea; shrimp and vegetable dumplings; and steamed buns filled with pork, bean paste and egg. Fresh juice and jasmine tea are poured. A chef in Chinatown prepares the buns and dumplings, which are delivered daily to the hotel and steamed to order.

The new prix fixe option was a response to the growing number of Chinese guests at the hotel, said Sanjay Mahajan, its director of food and beverage. (The hotel is also accepting a Chinese credit card and delivering Chinese-language newspapers.) “What is interesting about it is that now, our American guests are also ordering it,” Mr. Mahajan said of the breakfast. “When they see the steamer baskets go by in the dining room, they’re interested.”